John H. Cochrane

Senior Fellow
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Biography: 

John H. Cochrane is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and an adjunct scholar of the CATO Institute. 

Before joining Hoover, Cochrane was  a Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and earlier at its Economics Department. Cochrane earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at MIT and his PhD in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He was a junior staff economist on the Council of Economic Advisers (1982–83).

Cochrane’s recent publications include the book Asset Pricing and articles on dynamics in stock and bond markets, the volatility of exchange rates, the term structure of interest rates, the returns to venture capital, liquidity premiums in stock prices, the relation between stock prices and business cycles, and option pricing when investors can’t perfectly hedge. His monetary economics publications include articles on the relationship between deficits and inflation, the effects of monetary policy, and the fiscal theory of the price level. He has also written articles on macroeconomics, health insurance, time-series econometrics, financial regulation, and other topics. He was a coauthor of The Squam Lake Report. His Asset Pricing PhD class is available online via Coursera. 

Cochrane frequently contributes editorial opinion essays to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg.com, and other publications. He maintains the Grumpy Economist blog.

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Recent Commentary

Featured

Russ Roberts On Economic Humility

by John H. Cochrane featuring Russell Robertsvia Grumpy Economist
Friday, March 3, 2017

Russ Roberts has an excellent essay, What do economists know? on economic humility.

Featured

Long Run Fed Targets

by John H. Cochrane via Grumpy Economist
Tuesday, February 21, 2017

What should the Fed's long-run interest rate target be? The traditional view is that the glide path should aim at 4% -- 2% real plus 2% inflation.

apocalypse, war, fallout
Analysis and Commentary

Miserable 21st Century

by John H. Cochrane via Grumpy Economist
Monday, February 20, 2017

As of late 2016, the adult work rate in America was still at its lowest level in more than 30 years. To put things another way: If our nation’s work rate today were back up to its start-of-the-century highs, well over 10 million more Americans would currently have paying jobs.

Analysis and Commentary

Trump Derangement Syndrome

by John H. Cochrane via Grumpy Economist
Monday, February 20, 2017

On Sundays it has been my habit to read the New York Times Sunday Review. I like to peer in the bubble. On view, the old lady is still full-on foaming at the mouth with Trump Derangement Syndrome. 

Analysis and Commentary

Economies In Reverse

by John H. Cochrane via Grumpy Economist
Monday, February 13, 2017

How can economies forget? How is it that once we have learned to do something better, that knowledge can be lost and economies move backward? How can productivity decline? Viewing productivity as knowledge, it would seem almost impossible for it to do so -- and real business cycle theory was often derided on that point.

Featured

Here's What Healthcare Looks Like In A Perfect World

by John H. Cochrane via The Hill
Friday, February 10, 2017

Republicans replacing Obamacare, beware — it has a certain logic. Much of the Affordable Care Act patches up unintended consequences of previous regulations. If we just roll back and patch once again, we will end up right back where we started.

Featured

Carbon Compromise?

by John H. Cochrane via Grumpy Economist
Wednesday, February 8, 2017

In a remarkable and clear oped "A Conservative Answer to Climate Change" James Baker and George Shultz lay out the case for a carbon tax in place of the complex, cronyist and ineffective regulatory approach to controlling carbon emissions.

Analysis and Commentary

Summers On Trade

by John H. Cochrane via Grumpy Economist
Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Larry Summers has an excellent FT column, "Revoking trade deals will not help American middle classes." The key point: whatever you think of the impact of trade and globalization, trade deals are not responsible for stagnating "middle class" wages.

Featured

Corporate Tax (Or Is It?) Reading List

by John H. Cochrane via Grumpy Economist
Wednesday, February 1, 2017

On the house and administration plans to reform the corporate tax, and my struggles to figure it out.

Featured

Immigration And Trade

by John H. Cochrane via Grumpy Economist
Monday, January 30, 2017

Question: What is an easy way to reduce immigration in to the US (if you want to do that)? Answer: Buy what they have to sell. If they can make good money at home, they are less likely to want to come here.

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Current Online Courses

Asset Pricing, Part 1, via Coursera and the University of Chicago

This course is part one of a two-part introductory survey of graduate-level academic asset pricing. We will focus on building the intuition and deep understanding of how the theory works, how to use it, and how to connect it to empirical facts. This first part builds the basic theoretical and empirical tools around some classic facts. The second part delves more deeply into applications and empirical evaluation. Learn more. . .